Category Archives: Gluten-free baking

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Springtime always makes me think of the sunny flavors of lemon and blueberry. The bright, tart lemon combines so well with the rich, fruity blueberry.

This recipe uses a mixture of almond flour, coconut flour and tapioca starch to make a gluten-free and grain-free muffin that is a little higher in protein and lower in carbs than a grain-based muffin. Using honey in place of white sugar adds in more minerals so it isn’t just empty calories.

Try these muffins for an Easter Sunday brunch or a weekend family breakfast. Leftovers can go in the freezer. On busy mornings just wrap one or two in foil or parchment and reheat in a 350 oven for ten minutes for a quick breakfast. Make a batch of homemade turkey sausage and keep that in the freezer, too, and you can have a hearty breakfast in no time.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with parchment liners or spray with coconut oil spray.

Mix together the eggs, softened butter, honey, vanilla and lemon zest & juice in a mixer until well combined. In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients (almond flour, coconut flour, tapioca starch, baking soda and salt). Add the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl with the wet ingredients and stir until evenly mixed. Add in the blueberries at the end and stir gently until they are evenly distributed. Divide the batter evenly into the muffin cups. Bake for 19-21 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove muffins onto a cooling rack.

Christmas Dinner is over and the refrigerator is full of half-empty containers of leftovers. Hopefully you have already made a big pot of broth with the turkey carcass. Everyone is tired of turkey sandwiches, but a steaming hot Turkey Pot Pie will warm everyone up and help use up those little bits of vegetables languishing in the refrigerator.

This is comfort food folks! The good news is there are no hidden unwanted ingredients like hydrogenated fats, MSG, artificial flavors or chemical preservatives!

Turkey Pot Pie (or chicken) with gluten-free options

3 cups or more of leftover turkey cut into bite-sized chunks

2-3 cups homemade turkey broth OR leftover gravy

2 cups or more of leftover cooked vegetables such as peas, carrots, green beans, broccoli, pearl onions OR if you are making this at another time of year when you don’t have Christmas leftovers you can dice up a couple carrots, a stalk of celery, and a leek or an onion and saute them in a little butter before proceeding with the recipe. Add a 1/2 cup of frozen peas if you like.

3 Tablespoons butter

(omit if using leftover gravy) 4 Tablespoons all-purpose unbleached flour OR for gluten-free use an all-purpose gluten-free flour mix like Bob’s Red Mill

Butter the inside of a deep dish pie pan, or other oven-safe dish of similar size. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees (375 if you are using the almond flour crust).

Place the chopped turkey and the cooked vegetables in the prepared pie pan mixing together.

If you are using leftover gravy just warm it up now and skip this step. If you are using broth go ahead and continue here. Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Whisk in the flour or GF flour blend and continue cooking for about 2 minutes as it bubbles, but don’t brown it. Continue stirring as you pour in the homemade turkey broth. Then quickly whisk in the cream and continue cooking 3 or 4 more minutes until the sauce thickens a bit more. Stir in fresh pepper and 1/2 tsp of salt. Taste and adjust with more seasoning if needed.

Pour the broth mixture over the vegetables. If you are using leftover gravy pour it over the vegetables. Stir it up to mix well.

Roll out your pastry and lay it gently across the top of the turkey filling. The pastry should generously cover the filling. Press the overlapping part into the rim of the baking dish to seal.

Optional for a golden brown crust: Crack the egg in a small bowl and beat well with a fork. Use a pastry brush to brush the egg all over the entire crust.

Use a sharp knife or the tines of a fork to make small holes or slits in the crust to allow the steam to escape.

Put the baking dish onto a cookie sheet to catch any spills and place the whole thing into the preheated oven.

Bake 20 minutes and then reduce the heat to 375 and bake an additional 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling and hot.

Comfort food at its best, this is also a frugal way to use up leftover turkey, vegetables and gravy.

Ingredients

3 or more cups of leftover turkey or chicken cut into bite-size chunks

2-3 cups homemade broth OR leftover gravy

2 or more cups of leftover cooked vegetables such as peas, carrots, green beans, pearl onions, broccoli OR you can saute diced carrots, celery, leek or onion to equal 2 cups and add frozen peas if you don't have leftover vegetables

Blueberry season started early here in Florida. By the end of April we’d already gone blueberry picking and filled the freezer with berries for smoothies, jam, ice cream and muffins.

I have two teens now, but when the kids were little we always read Blueberries for Sal before going berry picking. I loved the Before Five In A Row lessons that included activities to make reading even more fun. I found these printables good for any little ones you might have at your house right now.

“Little Sal picked three berries and dropped them into her little tin pail…kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk!” – from Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

This year we are also getting handfuls of berries from our backyard bushes! I’ve tried converting our landscaping into as much edible landscaping as I can. Three blueberry bushes replaced some overgrown ligustrums a few years ago.

“You ought to have seen what I saw on my way To the village, through Mortenson’s pasture to-day: Blueberries as big as the end of your thumb, Real sky-blue, and heavy, and ready to drum In the cavernous pail of the first one to come! And all ripe together, not some of them green And some of them ripe! You ought to have seen!” excerpted from “Blueberries” by Robert Frost

When we first moved in we planted bananas which have since grown into a tiny jungle by my daughter’s bedroom window. Right now we have both bananas and blueberries growing – inspiration for some seasonal baking!

Sprouted Grains and Flours

I really like To Your Health’s Sprouted Gluten-free Baking Mix for these muffins. To Your Health, a small business in rural Alabama, is owned by Peggy Sutton whose own quest for health resulted in this answer: “Eat a variety of all foods God made available to us in as pure form as possible.”

Sprouting grains makes their vitamins more available and makes the grains more digestible while reducing the phytic acid to nearly half.

You can find To Your Health sprouted flours and products at selected Whole Foods stores and other natural food stores, or you can order them directly from To Your Health.

In a medium bowl whisk together the gluten-free flour, sea salt, baking soda, and baking powder and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar. Add the bananas, mixing well. Add the eggs and mix well. Add half of the dry ingredients, mix and then add half the kefir or buttermilk. Add remaining dry ingredients followed by remaining kefir/buttermilk. Stir until incorporated. Then gently stir in the blueberries.

Evenly divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from the oven.

Allow the muffins to stay in the muffin tin for about 3 minutes. I’ve found that gluten-free baked goods are much more fragile and allowing them to set up a bit makes it less likely that you will squash or break one taking it out of the pan.

Remove from the pan and allow to cool on a wire rack. These keep best if refrigerated, and they also freeze well. Just wrap in a little foil to reheat in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

This blog is for informational purposes only. Some links may be monetized. Thank you for supporting Well Fed Family with your purchases.

It’s fall and time for all things pumpkin! We are eating far fewer grains right now because some in our family do better without them. But I needed a muffin that would also please the tastebuds of the others who don’t have to restrict grains. These muffins fit that requirement! They aren’t overly sweet, but the addition of chocolate chips gives a little burst of sweetness that goes well with the fall spices. Be sure to keep any leftovers in the refrigerator. For a dairy-free muffin use coconut oil or palm shortening in place of the butter.

Mix together the pumpkin, eggs, melted butter or oil, and the honey in a medium bowl. In a large bowl stir together the almond flour, arrowroot, coconut flour, baking soda, sea salt and the spices. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until well blended. Stir in the chocolate chips and divide the batter equally between the muffin cups. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

This blog is for informational purposes only. Some links may be monetized. Thank you for supporting Well Fed Family with your purchases.

The days are getting a little shorter. The air has that special quality that signals the end of one season transitioning into another. Suddenly I’m craving nutmeg and cinnamon, ginger and cloves – sweet potato pie? How about waffles that taste like sweet potato pie?!

These waffles are Paleo-style which means no grains. These waffles won’t give you a sugar rush (unless you spill the maple syrup – oops!) as they are full of protein, complex carbs and good fats. Make a double batch and freeze some for easy school-day breakfasts. Just pop them still frozen into the toaster for a few minutes.

If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice you can blend your own from 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves. Or for a fun flavor twist use Chinese Five Spice powder which is a blend of cinnamon, anise, clove, ginger and black pepper.

Top your waffles with plenty of butter if you can have dairy, and real maple syrup. Or for a more Paleo-style topping you can whip up some coconut cream and a little honey to make a fluffy topping.

Preheat your waffle iron according to the directions. Place the almond butter into a mixer and use the whisk attachment to whip the almond butter for about one minute. This helps to give the waffles a lighter texture and makes it easier to mix in everything else. Add in the remaining ingredients and continue to use the whisk attachment to mix it all up. The batter will be somewhat thick. Bake the waffles according to the directions for your machine. My Belgian waffle maker uses about 1/2 cup batter for 3 minutes. Yield from my machine was five waffles.

find the flavors of fall in the South with sweet potatoes, cinnamon and spices

Ingredients

1 cup mashed cooked sweet potato

1 cup almond butter

2 eggs from hens raised on pasture

1 Tablespoon arrowroot powder (or equal amount of coconut flour)

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon sea salt

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (or 1½ teaspoons five spice powder)

coconut oil for greasing the waffle iron

Instructions

Preheat your waffle iron.

Place the almond butter into the bowl of a mixer and use the whisk attachment to whip the almond butter for about one minute. This helps the texture of your waffles.

Add the remaining ingredients (except coconut oil) and continue to whip until everything is blended.

Bake according to your waffle iron's directions using the coconut oil to grease the iron.

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What is your favorite fall flavor? Have you ever tried sweet potato pie? Tell us about it in the comment section. And be sure to follow us on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter for more recipes and healthy living articles.

Chicken Parmigiana is a family favorite that I hadn’t made in a long time – about a year – since I went on a gluten-free diet. (Read more about my reasons here.) After reading through several paleo-style cookbooks from some very talented cooks I realized I could makeover our favorite version of this recipe so I could eat it, plus in doing so I reduced the carb count making this a decent recipe for anyone on a lower carb diet as well. The tapioca starch is a good Paleo-friendly substitute for all-purpose flour normally used for dredging the chicken before pan-frying.

The rolled presentation of this dish makes it special enough for a company dinner. If you’ve never flattened a boneless chicken breast before it isn’t hard. If the chicken is especially thick you can butterfly it first. Then place the chicken between two sheets of heavy duty plastic wrap, waxed paper, or inside a freezer strength zip top bag. Use the flat side of a meat mallet, or a rolling pin, or the bottom of a heavy skillet, and just pound the chicken – don’t be dainty – until it is a uniform 1/2″ thickness. The time to be gentle is when you’re rolling the filling up inside. Don’t squeeze or press too hard or the filling will squirt out. Pin it up with toothpicks to keep it all together.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. If the chicken breasts are large you can butterfly them first. Place the chicken on a cutting board and cover with a sheet of waxed paper or heavy duty plastic wrap. Use a heavy rolling pin or meat mallet to pound the chicken to about 1/2″ thickness evenly throughout. I had larger pieces of meat so I ended up cutting them in half after they were pounded so the finished roll wouldn’t be so large. You may or may not need to cut yours. Season the pounded chicken on both sides with the sea salt.

Mix together the ricotta, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan, the basil and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Set three rimmed plates or pans in a row. Sprinkle arrowroot powder or tapioca starch in the first pan. Beat the two eggs in the second pan. Mix the almond meal and the dried basil in the third pan.

flattened and filled, ready to roll

filled, rolled and coated in seasoned almond meal

Divide the ricotta mixture evenly between the flattened chicken pieces. Starting at the larger end, gently roll up the chicken taking care not to squeeze the filling out. Secure with toothpicks. Dredge the chicken rolls in the arrowroot tapping off the excess, then dip into the beaten egg letting the extra drip back into the pan, then coat them with the almond meal mixture. Heat the butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the chicken, in batches if needed. Cook until browned and getting crispy on the outside, about 4 minutes per side.

Spread 1 cup of the marinara in a baking pan large enough to fit the chicken in one layer. Place the browned chicken rolls in the pan. Top with the remaining marinara. Layer the slices of mozzarella on the chicken and sprinkle with the rest of the Parmesan. Bake until the chicken is cooked through and the topping is browned and bubbling, about 20-25 minutes.

*You can use your own homemade marinara sauce, or if you would like to use jarred sauce we recommend Rao’s. The Rao’s marinara doesn’t have any artificial ingredients or added sugars and the flavor is delicious. If you like it, consider buying a case through our Amazon store. The jar price per case is less than half of the usual grocery store price by the jar. And even though it doesn’t increase your purchase price, Amazon does give Well Fed Family a token of thanks in return.

Ever since the kids were little and we were doing Five In A Row as part of our homeschooling, I’ve had a craving for cranberry bread every time Thanksgiving rolls around. One of our favorite books from FIAR was Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin. “At the edge of a lonely cranberry bog in New England and the winds were cold at the edge of the sea” lived Grandmother and Maggie. Every Thanksgiving they would each invite someone to share dinner with them. This time around, however, Grandmother does not approve of Mr. Whiskers, Maggie’s guest. He behaves suspiciously and when the secret family recipe for cranberry bread just happens to disappear he is the first one Grandmother suspects.

I love the message of the story, that we cannot judge someone by outward appearances, but rather it is what is on the inside that makes someone a precious friend. I also love that at the end of the book they actually share Grandmother’s recipe for cranberry bread!

So here I sat, gray skies threatening rain and me in want of cranberry bread with a hint of orange and sweetness giving fragrance to the gloomy day. But having put myself on a gluten-free diet I couldn’t make the traditional recipe from the book. Thanks to the Radiant Life free e-book on cooking with coconut flour I was confident and inspired enough to translate the tangy sweet flavors of Grandmother’s recipe into the perfect little gluten-free cranberry muffin. Even my husband, who is not a fan of coconut flour and frequently sighs longingly after the good ol’ days of gluten, said these were great and he could definitely have them again soon!

In a food processor, blend the eggs, butter, buttermilk, maple syrup, and vanilla until well mixed. Add the orange zest, baking powder, baking soda, salt and coconut flour. Blend until there are no lumps. Add the cranberries and pulse just until they are chopped.

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin – use about 1/4 cup per each. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until the tops are just golden and they begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for about 3 minutes before you remove them to a cooling rack. Serve warm with plenty of butter and a little raw honey if desired.

I goofed this week with my menu planning and grocery shopping – I never got anything for breakfast and now the kids have been foraging every morning for something to eat, never thrilled with my suggestions to just eat the leftovers from dinner the night before. My son will make himself eggs, but my daughter doesn’t like them, she’s more of a sausage or muffin kid. On top of all that I ended up having to empty and defrost the refrigerator trying to find a mystery water leak. So this morning as I was tossing unidentifiable baggies of this and that I uncovered some almond flour and some frozen peach slices. It’s the little discoveries that get my creativity going. These breakfast cookies are what we ended up eating. I fed some to the contractor who is here working on the guest bathroom (did I mention that mom, dad and two teenagers – including a teenage girl – are all sharing one bathroom right now?) I had intended for them to be scones, but they ended up more like batter than dough so soft cookies it is.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease or parchment line a baking sheet. I like to use a food processor to whirl everything up, but you can certainly do this by hand in a bowl. Place the almond flour, eggs, maple syrup, vanilla and melted butter in a food processor and process until mixed. Add the soda, salt and ginger and mix again. Finally add the peaches and pulse just until combined. You don’t want to chop them so much that you don’t have little juicy bits of peach left in the cookie. Spoon the batter onto the prepared baking sheet using about 2 Tblsp for each one. Leave some space between them as they will spread more during baking. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden around the edges. Remove to a cooling rack. Freeze any leftovers and you can heat them up in a toaster later.

So I was driving from Orlando up to Georgia to pick up my kids after a weekend with their grandparents, and I was listening to a podcast with Chris Kresser (functional and integrative practitioner and author of Your Personal Paleo Code). His co-host was asking him what was for breakfast that morning. Chris started describing these plantain waffles he’d eaten and I just started salivating – I love plantains, green or ripe, and they also happen to be a really good carb for just about anyone – so I decided I would look for that recipe when I got home. I bought two nicely mottled-brown plantains at the store and then checked out Bing for the recipe. I was pretty bummed when all I could find were recipes using plantain flour instead of just ripe plantains. But that didn’t stop me for long, because after all of the GAPS cooking, gluten-free cooking and Paleo cooking I’ve been doing lately I can pretty much make a pancake out of anything; maybe not a waffle, but definitely a pancake.

plantain vs. banana

If you’ve never had a plantain, they are similar in appearance to a banana, but a good bit larger. When you cook them green they taste a lot like potato. When you wait until they are nearly black all over and kind of squishy you can bake them or slice and fry them in butter or ghee for a sweet, warm, caramelized tropical treat.

One thing about non-traditional pancakes is they are sometimes tricky to flip. I waited for the classic signs of pancake flipping readiness….little bubbles that form all over the batter then pop and stay popped. After one fail (still tasty, but not really a good pancake shape) I discovered I needed to be swift and confident making the metal spatula scoop and flip in one quick movement. A few seconds to finish the other side and then onto the plate. I used a 1/4 cup of batter per pancake and got about 8 pancakes. Slathered with some Kerrygold butter they didn’t need anything else in my opinion. My husband enjoyed a little raw honey on the one I saved for him. These are good hot or cold. I could see them used as a wrap for some nut butter and jam, or maybe with a little sliced ham. I enjoyed them stacked on a plate hot off the griddle.

So I’ve been teaching Sunday School for the past two years now. But this is Sunday School like you’ve never seen it. I have the coolest classroom – it’s a little cafe with a real kitchen area. We teach Bible stories and use hands-on cooking projects to cement the lesson in the kids’ minds and hearts (and stomachs!) This week we’ve been getting ready for a big Open House to show off all the neat classrooms and creative lessons being used to teach Jesus’ Love to these sweet kids. I’m going to do a cooking demo for the Open House – I’m making Mud Cookies. We used this recipe when we taught about the Miracles of Jesus. In chapter 9 of the New Testament book of John it tells how Jesus made mud with some dirt and saliva, and rubbed it over the eyes of a man who had been born blind. He then sent the man to wash it off in one of the city fountains. When the man washed off the mud he could see!

mud cookies

Our cookies start out looking like a bowl of lumpy mud. In fact they look pretty gross – you mix cocoa powder with egg whites which looks an awful lot like dirt and spit. But soon after stirring and stirring the batter gets shiny, then you drop spoonfuls onto a parchment paper and bake them. What you get are the most deep, dark chocolate cookies you can imagine! My classroom recipe only makes 10 cookies because our little oven only holds that many, but you can easily double the recipe to make a bigger batch. And you will definitely want to do that because we discovered that these cookies make the perfect sandwich for homemade vanilla ice cream! Oh. My. Goodness. My son made the vanilla ice cream today from the Well Fed Family free ice cream ebook (have you gotten yours yet? sign up for the newsletter using the link on the right side of this website and we’ll send it to you for free!), we used these cookies to make ice cream sandwiches for dessert tonight. Perfect! They are just the right texture, just like those soft cookies that come with the eskimo pies from the ice cream truck. And oh so chocolatey! What a perfect way to use up the egg whites leftover from making the ice cream!

Mix everything together in a medium bowl. Use the honey if you don’t mind having a chewier cookie, the sugar will make it a little firmer but less nutritious. However these are dessert – so don’t feel like using honey means you can eat the whole batch yourself 😉 Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes until they are dry on top to the touch but still springy. Cool on the baking sheet for a minute or two and then use a metal spatula to remove to a cooling rack. Use two cookies, flat sides together, with two tablespoonfuls of ice cream to make the sandwiches. Eat immediately or wrap in wax paper to freeze for later.

Dark chocolate, gluten-free cookies bake up just right for using in ice cream sandwiches.

Ingredients

½ cup cocoa powder

⅓ cup egg whites (about 3)

½ cup organic sugar or honey

¼ cup dark chocolate chips

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of sea salt

vanilla ice cream, homemade or good quality store bought

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Stir all of the ingredients together in a medium bowl.

Use a heaping tablespoon of batter for each cookie spooned onto the parchment, leaving some space between the cookies.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until the top is dry but still springy.

Allow to cool on the parchment for a few minutes before using a metal spatula to remove to a cooling rack.

To make sandwiches place one cookie flat side up on a plate.

Spoon 2 Tablespoons of softened ice cream onto the cookie and top with the flat side of a second cookie.

Press slightly to spread filling to the edges.

Eat immediately, or if desired, wrap in wax paper and freeze to eat later.

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mud cookies with homemade vanilla ice cream

I can definitely see these with variations. Maybe sub peppermint extract for the vanilla for mint chocolate mud cookies. Or use any of the other ice cream flavors in our free ice cream ebook, wow, how about peanut butter ice cream with these chocolate cookies! Leave a comment and let us hear your great flavor ideas! Pin for later or share on Facebook using the links above the blog.

Some links may be monetized. Thanks for supporting Well Fed Family. This blog is for informational purposes only.

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Our gift to you this season! Here is Number Three in a series of lessons I have written for family Bible study or homeschool devotional time. The lessons should work for approximately ages 6 to 13, but younger or older children are certainly able to participate! Here is Lesson One: The Prophets Foretell Jesus’ […]

Our gift to you this season! This is the second in a series of lessons I have written that are appropriate for a family Bible study or homeschool devotional time. The lessons are suitable for approximately ages 6 to 13, but younger children can be included with some extra explanations from mom or dad. Older […]

Merry Christmas from Well Fed Family! Our gift to you this season! I have written a set of lessons that can be used for family Bible study or devotional time. The lessons are suitable for approximately ages 6 to 13, but younger children can be included with some extra explanations from mom or dad. Older […]